Auction Napa Valley Sets New Record

2012 vintage boosts proceeds to $18.7 million

Darioush Khaledi celebrates as his auction item captures one of the top 10 live auction bids during Auction Napa Valley. Photo by Jason Tinacci for the Napa Valley Vintners.

Napa, Calif.—The Napa Valley Vintners chalked up another record this weekend at the annual Auction Napa Valley fundraiser, raising $18.7 million, much from the widely heralded 2012 vintage.

This bested the $16.9 million set in 2013, itself a record.

The once-in-a-lifetime experiences of the 50 live auction lots generated more than $12.65 million for community health and nonprofit children’s education during Saturday’s live auction at Meadowood.

The doubled Raymond Hollywood adventure, which brought in $840,000, was among the top lots. In total, seven lots were doubled on Saturday afternoon, helping to contribute to the overall Auction total.

The Mayacamas Vineyards lot, from a historic vineyard recently bought by the former owner of Screaming Eagle, fetched $660,000, and Bill Harlan’s new Promontory venture attracted $600,000.

The barrel auction held Friday at the renovated Charles Krug Winery also set a new record of $1.7 million.

The Vintners attribute some of the success of Friday’s Napa Valley Barrel Auction to a new mobile application that allowed bidders to monitor and respond to bids on their smartphones while sipping Napa Valley wines and savoring food prepared by local chefs in the outdoor marketplace. Nearly 400 guests used the new technology to secure cases of Napa Valley wine.

The E-Auction, which was the only auction open to fans around the world, closed Sunday raising $490,000, another record.

The Fund-A-Need lot, where bidders receive no wine or tangible rewards for their bids, only the satisfaction of helping children, raised more than $3.8 million.

Approximately 1,000 local vintners, chef teams, donors and volunteers contributed to the auction’s success. In its 31 years, the money raised by the auction let the Vintners donate more than $120 million to good causes in Napa County.